Feudal Quest

Re: May Orders

Mmmh, seems We'll really need to put a few actions where we are together with Dita, so that we can both finds offensive ways for her to use her Light Sorcery, and so that we can reassure her and show her she doesn't need to cripple herself.

See how we had time to talk to Chesna and Ezti a lot during our walk on their borders- we will most likely do the same there.

 

Re: May Orders

I really think the problem is that she's not even considering on coming back, so she's focusing my new things that would allow her to survive in India and nothing else.

She's likely to disagree with the horsemanship training for the same reason.

 

Re: May Orders

Those things wouldn't help her survive in India- and she certainly is considerign coming back, given that it's so much harder to live in India as a fugitive than here.

The problem is that she believes her life is already over, so she is only looking for what a 15yo kid believes are the skills needed for her quests, not what is actually needed nor the skills needed once she has managed her quest.

Not only that, but even if she did think of those skills she only thinks about it in term of hiding herself, not in term of living.

EDIT:
ShaperV: What prompted Dominic not to use an action to train Dita in order to try and convince her later on to do didferent kind of training? I got the impression that given how many people wanted either Dominic to train Dita or Dominic to convince her to do something else, if he couldn't convince her right now he would have tried to slot more time with her in order to do it over the month. Anything we can do to switch this that way?

Re-EDIT: Also, is the letter we are sending to our Dad going to include a request for a Castellan?

 

Well considering that India is supposed to be some kind of far off land that anyone entering it needs to fight for their lives 24/7... The first thing she's going to look and train for is to, you know, not get killed. So yes, survival.

She's not going prosper or anything (most likely will be stuck as a mercenary or something similar if her patron doesn't pick her up) but not dying is good!

Edit: I'm pretty sure I read that she is planning on never returning cause she believes grandfather is out to kill her?

 

Re: May Orders

Several people expressed interest in that idea, but the votes were mostly in favor of a plan that didn't include it. So I figured Dominic is planning to do that at some point, but felt he didn't have time right now.

I'll add that if I see a few more people asking for it - it certainly doesn't take Dominic any real time to add another paragraph to his letter.

 

then asking for a castellan would be a good idea.

 

May Event - Troublesome Women

You’re in your study one afternoon reviewing Traian’s accounting of recent expenses when you hear a soft rustle, and look up to find Katiana leaning on the edge of your desk beside you. When did she get here? Wait, didn't you leave the door closed?

She smiles at you. “Got a minute, my lord?”

The way she purrs that title always gets to you. Especially when she’s wearing a low-cut dress that shows off her assets and barely covers her knees. But you’ve resolved not to give her the satisfaction of a visible reaction, even if she does seem to take it as a challenge.

“I suppose. Is there a problem?”

“Mmm Hmmm. I've been here two months now, and you haven’t touched me. No peremptory summons to your bedroom, no smooth seduction, no sly hints about what I owe you, nothing. It’s enough to make a girl wonder if she’s losing her touch,” she says playfully.

You open your mouth to reply, but she puts a finger to your lips.

“I know,” she says, suddenly serious. “Thank you. I appreciate your care, and the respect that you've shown me. But the competition is heating up now, and I can’t fall too far behind.”

She tosses something shiny and metallic onto your desk, and rises.

“Ezti and Chesna both have baronies as their dowries,” she points out, her voice shifting back to a teasing tone. “Even Dita might, though she’s a tough nut to crack. And I’m sure your aunt will have a whole parade of lovely pampered ladies for your perusal.”

It’s a gold nugget. A good-size one, maybe half a pound. Kat’s been walking around with a couple hundred SP worth of gold in her pocket?

She leans against your back, resting her chin on your shoulder and pressing her firm breasts against you.

“That’s from a river in southern Germania,” she purrs in your ear. “I could show you where, if you ever want to go collect some. Silver, diamonds, rubies and emeralds, everywhere I go I see something men covet. My dowry is all the bounty of the Earth, my lord.”

“Dowry? Are you serious?” You ask.

“Why wouldn't I be? I've watched you leading your people. I've heard about your battle, and I've seen you exploring your own magic. Where else would I find a man like you?”

“Oh, and Dominic? My mother was a princess of the molten depths, what you would can an efreet. My natural magic is fire and earth, passion and fertility, and my looks won’t fade with time. Think about that.”

She slips out the door while you’re still absorbing that revelation, and closes it behind her with a soft giggle.

Well now, that was unexpected.

 

I don't think letting someone our grandfather trusts anywhere near Dita is a good idea.

 

A new challenger has entered the ring.

 

She always was one as far as I'm concerned... only too much of a hassle politically to become main or only wife.

Still, mark that down as not trusting her with the birth control.

 

Re: May Event - Troublesome Women

Ah, Kat... it's so sad that you have just the one action a turn. Can't have such weak blood for our heir, you understand?

Cool, that already makes five of us.

We are asking our Dad- the same one who gave us Bialis and Jaroslaw.

Yuuup.

 

As far as I'm concerned, political power - Ezti, maybe Chesna or Dita - means protection for Corzu, wealth - especially connected to Kat - only paints a bigger bulls eye on us. It's definitely good to have... but not as step one.

 

Alright, I'll add the castellan request to the letter.

Kat reports that there isn't enough empty space in your castle's courtyard to hold the granary without blocking traffic. She can take down part of the stable (which is mostly empty right now) to make room, if you want the granary inside you walls for defensibility. Or she could build it at Tamasi for ease of use, since that's your main settlement and transportation center. Which do you prefer?

Also, since I'm trying to make this turn move faster than the last one I'm not going to do an extended series of conversations before the update. Your results post will give you a general overview of how things go and your impression of the man, and then if there's something in particular you want to feel him out on you can.

 

Well, how many years would we need to enlarge our keep enough to hold stables, bathhouse and granary plus room for the added staff?

I don't want our tax and food reserves to stand in the middle of a settlement more or less undefended.

 

Hope if it's not too late but I seriously want Dominic to start using his Seduction Technique if only to get her as a mistress start getting that harem. It is very tempting with her using magic to get precious metals. Is there someway to get her gifts discreetly?

Oh and have that granary at Tamasi if only to make things easy and accessible.

 

Granary in the keep i feel is best- it means we won't be able to get a big Cavalry at home, but it makes the keep more stable in case of sieges. Also, it means we won't get the granaries cursed with pestilence by a certain witch when we aren't looking.

 

It's more getting us in a better starting position than "horny 18 yo".

 

If we're being sieged at our home, something has gone horribly wrong.

Besides, what's the point of the granary? If it's for trade and profits, there's nothing wrong with it being outside where it can make the most money.

 

True, you have a point.

Food storage, in case of famine or for animal feed.

 

Then I don't see anything wrong with putting it outside - unless you're afraid that peasants/serfs will attempt to mob it to steal all the food or something?

 

Our garrison is tiny, robbers roam the lands and our people are poor.
I don't trust a settlement full of poor people to trust in their lord's good usage of their taxes if the alternative is filling their bellies. Then there's that witch.

Yeah, I prefer the granary watched.

 

If things goes south, like an invasion or freak weather causing massive destruction.

 

There are several concerns with having the granary in Tamasi.
The first being we will have to station guards to avoid things like thieves and beastial attacks, where if it was in the keep the garrison just pulls double duty and only get sent out as escorts every now and again.
The second, it puts it in the 'Witch of Tamasi's area of influence, meaning that if she so desires she could likely curse the food for her own gain and get away with it much easier than if it was in the Keep.

There are other issues but those are the most prevalent I think, and while being at the keep also has some problems, it has nowhere near as much and provides us with several advantages such as having it handy in case of a siege down the line, being able to keep accurate records with less chance of thieving side deals when it's right under our nose etc.

Having a siege on your place is a problem yes, but it's much more of a problem if you don't have enough food on hand to outlast it.

 

It's also a security risk though. We're giving everyone who has a use of the granary direct access to the main castle.

 

How is that a security risk if we watch it, the bigger risk is not knowing what happens at the granary until it is too late.

Edit: Seeing how small the keep is, maybe we should add an outer bailey(if that's the right term) and put the granary there so visitors there do not need to get in the same fortification as the manor house. We could put the bathhouse there after scrapping the stables and rebuilding them in the outer bailey as well.
Only problems I see is where to locate the craftsmen and that the Keep is at the other end of the castle as such...

 

You say that like there is a reason for us to let people into the castle.
We have our own staff that could easily transport the grain wherever it needs to go, in or out.
It can be handled by our own people from the gates.

 

It's going to be in our main township, I highly doubt we don't already have guards stationed there. And I'd still prefer something to happen to it than say a caravan comes in and we find ourselves neck deep in assassins or sabatours that got invited in past the front gates.

And I highly doubt we will have enough people to control the flow of goods if we intend to trade any of the harvest at all. Though we could check now?

Edit: actually, I just thought of something.

1: why do we need to post guards for it? One of the main reasons why we're building it is to store food, but the merchants want it so that they could trade it further. Why not have them deal with the guarding and we just tax it and do bookkeeping as well as some clause that would allow us to retain control until they sell it?

 

How much would it cost us to have a granary at the castle and in our largest settlement?

 

You seem to have missed the earlier conversation. The purpose of the granary is to store all the grain you collect from harvest taxes, so you can keep it and use it for barter instead of selling it in Eztergrom at cut-rate prices. So it's going to be part of your treasury, not something that other people use for convenience.

 

Update - June 1, Year 1​

Project Results

Dominic - Walk the Rogatica Border
Baron Rogatica shows up with a considerably larger party than expected, including four knights and their squires as well as twenty men at arms and a few servants. His troops are all disciplined and well trained, with excellent equipment (i.e. Skill 2, Discipline 3, Equipment 3)

Your border with Rogatica is relatively short, but it’s the most problematic one since the river Lim tends to flood, change course and wash away marker stones on a semi-regular basis. You encounter several stretches of border where there are no markers or landmarks that fit the old descriptions, forcing you and Rogatica to set up new markers and negotiate where they should go. Fortunately there aren’t any settlements or other valuable points of interest in these zones. so you’re able to come to a reasonable agreement in each case.

Your overall impression of Baron Rogatica is a lot more favorable than you might have expected. He’s a professional military man with a strong drive for personal advancement, but he’s not a megalomaniac or a nut. You get the impression that he admires Ezti on a personal level, and thinks he’s doing her a favor by planning to marry her to legitimize his impending conquest of Kiscun instead of executing her.

Actually, in talking with Rogatica you realize that it would be entirely possible for you to ally with him instead of Kiscun. He has a low opinion of your family due to past dealings with Pavel and Nikolai, but he seems to think you’re honest enough to make a deal with. Right now the main thing holding him back from moving on Kiscun is the knowledge that Nikolai would probably take the opportunity to carve off a chunk of his territory while his army was busy, and you could probably get some nice concessions from him for using your influence to prevent that. If you could actually deliver Ezti to him unharmed…. well, he’d probably trade you a decent chunk of Kiscun for her.

In any event, you complete the border ride and part more or less amicably. You can now proceed to claiming regency over Corzu as soon as the haunts are dealt with.

Dominic - Research Corzu (Haunts)
This is an interesting exercise, but somewhat frustrating due to the general lack of solid information. You consult with Kat about haunts, make the rounds of your settlements collecting local tales about the two you’re interested in, and make careful visits to the sites with Dita in tow to see what you can observe.

According to Kat a haunt will almost always have a ‘heart’ - a physical object imbued with fel magic that acts as its anchor to the physical world. Destroying the anchor kills the haunt, but they can be annoyingly hard to find. Normally the anchor will have some metaphorical or thematic connection to the form the haunt takes when it manifests, but that’s usually the only clue you get.

Investigating the well, you confirm that the glowing tentacles described in the stories do emerge from the well at night. From a distance they look more like ghostly apparitions than anything solid, and arrows pass through them without effect. A torch left burning near the well draws their attention, but they probe the air around it cautiously for long minutes without ever touching the open flame. They don’t seem to be able to reach more than a hundred feet or so from the well, but there’s no sign of a central body or other vulnerable point. It seems obvious that the anchor is at the bottom of the well, which is going to make getting at it quite difficult. Kat observes that it might actually be the water in the well, which would be especially hard to destroy.

The tower may be simpler, if rather creepy. Dita can see dark magic covering the whole grove around the tower, apparently emanating from the stonework. Approaching the tainted grove causes the leaves to rustle unnaturally, and at night you can sometimes see ghostly figures inside the ruin. But if the magic is in the stonework it seems likely that the anchor will turn out to be the cornerstone or some other key structural element, and Kat can probably shatter it easily if you can just get her inside.

Dominic - Recruit Troops (Spearmen)
Bialas - Recruit Troops (Spearmen)
Jaroslaw - Recruit Troops (Spearmen)
You recruit and organize three new units of spearmen without incident. But at this point you’ve hired a large fraction of the young men in Corzu who want to join the military at the moment, so you won’t be able to do multiple recruitments in one turn again until next year.

Dita - Training
Dita begins a grueling dawn-to-dusk training schedule largely on her own, although she’s quite energetic about pestering all the swordsmen in the castle for tips and sparring matches whenever there’s an opportunity. You estimate she’s now halfway to improving her Swordsmanship to 2.

Katiana - Construction
Kat switches projects and begins work on a new granary. She estimates that completing the project will take another 2 months, 80 man-months labor and 120 SP cash.

After examining Mira and then Aldona Kat reports that Atalaya has apparently created a pretty impressive enchantment that inflicts a withering curse on any inhabitant of Tamasi who tells an outsider anything about her magic. Since they don’t live there anymore Kat was able to ward both girls against the effect pretty easily, and she even returns Mira’s lock of hair to its normal color. Both your mistresses are very grateful to her for her help.

In her spare time Kat has also befriended Dita, and you’ve seen them talking together a lot recently. Or possibly plotting together. Kat has definitely noticed Dita’s attraction to her, but while she doesn’t appear to return the interest it doesn’t seem to bother her either.

Traian - Train Engineering
Traian grumbles a bit about his talents being in mathematics rather than piling stone and cutting lumber, but he dutifully purchases an engineering handbook in Tamasi and spends the month poring over it.

Rangers - Hunt Beastmen
Sending your eight newly trained rangers out into the woods to hunt beastmen without a leader proved a disastrous move. One group. Thanks to a combination of bad luck and inclement weather they came off on the losing end of several skirmishes, losing one man while three more were seriously injured. Their wild talk of 'dozens' of beastmen in the woods is almost certainly exaggerated, but their claims that they killed half a dozen of the things seem equally unlikely.

The Call
Near the end of the month a strange apparition appears in your keep near sundown. A young peasant girl dressed in torn and bloodstained rags, with a short mop of pale blonde hair that looks like it was hacked off with a knife. One arm is heavily bandaged, and she carries an improvised spear made by tying a kitchen knife to the end of a broom handle. She strolls past several startled mean t arms to where Dita is sparring with one of the rangers, and nods to her.

“I heard your call, priestess,” she says in a voice that barely rises above a whisper. “Where’s the monster?”

Other Events
Lala asks you to visit Castle Pisch at some point in the coming month to help her hammer out travel arrangements (and browbeat Nikolai into getting out of the way).

You receive an unexpectedly prompt reply from Gavrilla, saying she’d like to visit you this month and discuss the family political situation and alliance options.

You receive a response from your father explaining that good castellans are hard to find and he’s currently employing all the ones he’d recommend, but if you just want a seneschal he can send you a good one. He also expresses concern at the rather sorry state of Pischia, but cautions you that it’s entirely possible Pavel is intentionally creating an impression of weakness for some reason - the crusade in Anatolia is winding down now, and Pavel is prone to setting up Byzantine plots. In any event he’s supposed to be returning to Borjeria next year, so you’ll be able to speak to him yourself at that point if you like.

A new map has been added to the Lore post, showing a more detailed view of Corzu.

Note: Status posts are still being updated.